Efficient Hens, UMass mistakes stymie the Minutemen

On the long drive back to New Hampshire I changed my mind about this game. I can't be in a bad mood when my Minutemen played a spirited game against the #1 team in the nation.

The UMass offense pushed the vaunted Delaware defense all over the field all day. The UMass players were into the game and played hard. Today was totally unlike Richmond or UNH.

Anthony Nelson had a monster day with 250 total yards.

We just made WAY too many mistakes to beat a team as good as Delaware.

UMass scored 27 points and made five other drives to the Hens 30 yard line or better. We missed three field goals. We muffed a snap. We threw an interception in the endzone.

In addition, we shanked another kickoff to give Devlin a short field.

UMass also came up short on a couple of officiating calls. A pass interference call from a official thirty yards away from the play kept a Hens drive alive.

I thought one of the UMass safeties was held on the up-the-middle run by Delaware RB David Hayes for a TD.

We're still in the playoffs if we beat the Rams next week. We knew beating Delaware was going to be tough. Everyone needs to keep playing and good things will happen next week.

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From the UMass post game notes:

Saturday's crowd was 10,057, which gave UMass a regular-season home average attendance of 13,004. That is the second-highest average attendance in UMass history, second only to the 1999 season (14,684).

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UMass video, post game notes, and box score.

Delaware writeup here.

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I'll be in Kingston next week and I'll have more on the Delaware game tomorrow.